2000-2003

Having returned from Bonneville in September I turned my attention from speed to the frontiers of space. Me & a small team were to attempt to launch the world's First Amateur Rocket Into space.

Initially I did consider chasing a $250,000 (CATS) prize being offered by the Space Frontier Foundation. However as this prize expired (unclaimed) in November 2000 (just about 10 months after we started) we simply did not have sufficient time to meet all the requirements.

Having decided to continue with the initial goal of FARI Space much design, build & testing was completed including several text book static engine tests, stage separation tests, stiffness / natural frequency tests, electronics hardware tests, etc.

A 'text book' 1st stage booster static engine test, almost 1 ton of thrust.

During this extensive ground testing my search was on to find & secure the best possible launch site. For publicity / sponsorship reasons we hoped to launch from within the UK. The only possible site was the military range at Benbecular in the Scottish Hebrides. After much discussion and planning & having produced all the requested documentation, the Ministry of Defense decided not to allow the launch, suggesting that although they had the ideal facility we spend our £50,000 launch fee in another country!

Undeterred we looked at other options including a collaboration with ASRI - Australian Space Research Institute. Unfortunately the Australian military range 'Woomera' also proved to be strangled in red tape. Continuing the search we finally ended up with Full Approval to go ahead at The Denel OTB test range in South Africa. I had also managed to secure Gillette again as title sponsor so we were "Game on". The launch date was set for March 12^th 2003.

Understandably, one of the ranges requirements was to have the ability to terminate thrust during flight should the rocket vere off its pre-determined course. In order to achieve this we needed a particular component, one of very few in the entire hardware that could not be produced by me or one of the team - a 'flight termination receiver', effectively the link between our and the range's hardware.

Because the entire launch was now reliant on this part being supplied on time all effort was made with both the American & British outlets of L3 Communications, the supplier, to ensure the order was dealt with efficiently. Phone calls, fax's, emails, lengthy forms had be filled in, declarations regarding its use had to be established & supported, approval from the USA Government had to be sort etc. etc. However despite all this effort,  incompetent idiots within L3 COMMUNICATIONS forgot to process the order, and by the time someone spotted their mess & told me it was apparently to late for them to supply by our launch deadline! 

As the receiver had to meet certain certification requirements to satisfy the range insurance, L3 Communications had a world monopoly on the item, so powerless to stop events I watched the 3 year project collapse like a pack of cards. The launch date was to suit the sponsor so understandably they had to withdraw. I did make efforts toward securing a new launch date but with the events that had preceded it was not without difficulties. I was very tired of the whole project and needed to start something new, I thought I may return to it at a later date.

A great deal of documentation was produced to provide a detailed description of the construction & operation of the vehicle, these documents may be available on request and despite the difficulties described above much knowledge was still gained.

Purpose designed and built to make a bid at reaching into space, this two stage, fin-guided suborbital sounding rocket is capable of an altitude in excess of 93KM.

Using my own design of Hydrogen Peroxide hybrid engine in each stage, the solid fuel in the Booster (1^st) stage is Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadeine (HTPB) & the solid fuel in the Sustainer (2^nd) stage is Ultra High Density Polyethylene (UDPE). Both of these solid fuel elements react with the decomposed liquid hydrogen peroxide, producing intense combustion. Both stages use a conventional pressure feed system.

With body cover removed the booster  plumbing/H2O2 fill points can be seen

Sustainer plumbing / fill bay.

No parts of the vehicle are from any military or government programme, indeed very few 'off the shelf' parts have been incorporated into the 21 foot long (6.5m) vehicle. Many innovative details are included in the design, a typical example being the pneumatic stage separation, which uses the residue Helium left at the end of the Booster burn to blow the stages apart.

Ready to go!

The outline design process basically involved finding the "Sweet Spot" - the point at which most aspects were close to optimisation (within our budget). This resulted in a surprisingly small & efficient two stage rocket. As part of the design process, the rocket was designed on 3D CAD with some structures modelled using F.E. and powerful computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs for its aerodynamic signature.